4 - Kawuugulu and Inter-Clan Politics

Summary

Primary members of the Butiko Clan, Aboobutiko, have kin ties to other clans. These connections revolve around various forms of blood ties, which allow certain secondary members of the Butiko Clan to perform with Kawuugulu. Goreti Nalugunju, a Kawuugulu performer and primary member of the clan born in 1982, stressed that the ensemble's drums can distinguish a performer with clan blood from a person without affiliation. Another primary member of the clan and Kawuugulu performer, Diriisa Kasiga, born in 1969, recounted an event where an ineligible performer tried to dance to the ensemble's drum set during a performance in the kabaka's palace in Banda during the late 2000s. According to Kasiga, the performer stiffened after ignoring the counsel of eligible performers who had asked him to stop dancing. Fortunately, he lived despite this near-death experience.

Annet Najjuka, a primary clan member and Kawuugulu performer born in 1946, stated that another ineligible performer dared dance with the ensemble during the same event. His intention was to verify that Kawuugulu drums could actually incapacitate individuals without Butiko Clan blood. The victim instantly began to suffer from an abdominal disorder that caused him to drop to the ground. Ensemble members removed him from the performance area before his condition became fatal. I recorded numerous such accounts from performers who had witnessed Kawuugulu drums incapacitate non-ensemble members who tried either to walk through the instruments or to touch them during the early twentieth-century.

In this chapter I focus on how Kawuugulu draws on musical performance and storytelling to model and structure connections between Aboobutiko and primary members of other clans. As the events and practices recounted in the foregoing narratives show, the ensemble is able to “distinguish,” “exclude,” and “embrace” members of Kiganda society, thus acting as a system of inter-clan politics.

Butiko and Ngeye Clan Relations

Abengeye, primary members of the Ngeye (Colobus Monkey) Clan, are eligible performers in Kawuugulu because of their connections to Aboobutiko through historical blood brotherhood (mukago) and marriage alliances (bufumbo). Both groups believe that these connections established kinship that qualifies Abengeye to perform in the ensemble. Najjuka Nabagereka told me that this kinship was so strong that at one point many members considered not intermarrying between the Butiko and Ngeye Clans in fear of committing incest.